No action on school budget until July 23

REGION — The Wachusett Regional School District Committee gathered on June 27 in a special session because it has no budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. After brief discussion, members took Superintendent Thomas Pandiscio’s advice to do nothing until their next regular meeting on July 23, when he will have recommendations on budget cuts.

On June 26, Paxton voters defeated a $181,546 Proposition 2 ½ override that would have funded Paxton’s share of the $79.3 million fiscal 2013 school budget. Rutland voters changed their school assessment in May, which the state Department of Education says was an illegal action. Only three member towns – Holden, Princeton and Sterling – approved the budget. Four-town approval is required.

“There are still a fair number of moving parts [to the budget],” Pandiscio said, including final state aid. By law, if the district did not have a budget in place by June 30, it would operate on a monthly basis, using fiscal 2012 numbers. He said the district’s proposal to enact the 1/12th budget format was on the the state Commissioner of Education’s desk for signing.

“We have 30 days to adopt a new budget,” Pandiscio said. “It will be a brandnew budget requiring four-town approval, or one with Rutland’s number, which won’t require [four-town] approval, because it is lower than that approved by Holden, Princeton and Sterling. “We have 30 days to make our deliberations. I see no tenable reason to do otherwise than reduce to Rutland’s number… I see nothing to be gained by taking a vote tonight.”

Pandiscio said if the district didn’t require school committee approval to issue bonds to meet payroll (because there is no approved budget), he would have recommended canceling Wednesday’s meeting. He said he will present recommendations at the July 23 meeting on where to cut $415,000 from the $79.3 million budget plan. “There’s nothing that I’m considering that’s going to be a surprise,” he told committee members. “There will be no bombshells.”

He mentioned staff reductions through attrition (not hiring replacements for teachers retiring or leaving), which will impact class sizes, elimination of late buses (which the district had wanted to reinstate this fall), and perhaps various administrative positions and/or not establishing the new position of a middle school math coach to address low MCAS scores.

“We hitched our wagon to a few ideas… let’s hang on to them as long as feasible,” he said.

A few committee members said they would not support the $415,000 in reductions, but Pandiscio told them that in effect, they have no choice. “We have a rejected budget,” he said. “We have 30 days to submit a new one. “In Paxton there were four people at an override vote information meeting, and 45 at a Tea Party meeting – do the math,” he said.

Paxton WRSDC representative William Clute said he couldn’t see any adjusted Wachusett budget that wouldn’t still require Paxton to pass an override, and “the town would vote down an override if it was for $5.”

“Paxton and Rutland will be the towns that decide what our budget will be… it’s crazy,” said Holden member Cynthia Bazinet. “We’ll be cutting teachers every year because Paxton is never going to support the budget, nor is Rutland. Neither town shows any political will to raise revenue… it will be like this for the foreseeable future, every year.”

Holden member Stacey Jackson said, “I hate to do it, but now is better than do cuts in October or November.”

Pandiscio said cutting $415,000 from the budget to meet Rutland’s assessment number is better than going back to town meetings and perhaps having to cut $800,000-$1,000,000 to meet Paxton’s number.

“This is spilled milk – no use crying over it,” said Sterling member James Mason. He said their task is to think how to pressure legislators about changing the state’s minimum spending formula.

“I don’t know how the legislature can see this [the Wachusett District already the lowest per-pupil spending district in the commonwealth], without realizing something is flawed,” said WRSDC Chairman Duncan Leith of Holden.

“I’m angry at the process, but not at wanting to stick it to Rutland or Paxton,” said Holden member Steven Hammond. “I’m concerned about the process for next year.”

“What Rutland did was deplorable,” said Sterling member Sarah LaMountain, “but I don’t want to play with kids’ education.”